Thanks to the generosity of Labyrinth Books, the New Haven Review is proudly hosting a summer book group in its New Haven store at 290 York Street. Each of the editors — Mark Oppenheimer, Tom Gogola, and Brian Francis Slattery — and one author from Issue 2 of the Review, Steven Stoll, will lead a discussion of a recent book that they have loved. The books are available at Labyrinth, but of course, having read the book beforehand isn't mandatory to coming to the discussions or taking part in them.

First up is Brian Francis Slattery (i.e., me) on May 28, at 6 p.m., leading a discussion of A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya by Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya; an excellent overview of this slim, excoriating book appears on Labyrinth's website. I chose the book because, in recent memory, I haven't read a book that left me so shaken for so many different reasons, and it's one of a few books that I recommend to anyone who will bend an ear to listen. I hope that you, dear readers, will all come whether you have read the book or not. The discussion is likely to range across freedom of information issues, war correspondence, the swiftly changing face of Russia today, and whether the conflict in Chechnya and the government's massive cover-up of it will come back to haunt it. There is so much to talk about.